A video may include a series of video frames each containing a video snap-shot of an image scene. The series of video frames may be rendered on a display at an appropriate frame rate to provide a playback of the video.
A video system may include the capability of extracting a subset of the video frames of a video to be used as key-frames. For example, a set of key-frames may be extracted from a video to construct a storyboard for the video. A storyboard may be constructed by rendering the extracted key-frames as a series of thumbnail images that provide a viewer with a visual indication of the content of the video.
A method for extracting key-frames from a video may be based on an arrangement of shots in the video. For example, a professionally edited video may be arranged into a set of carefully selected shots. Key-frames may be extracted from an edited video by detecting boundaries between the shots and then selecting a key-frame at the beginning, middle, or the end of each shot.
Unfortunately, extracting key-frames from the beginning, middle, or the end of the shots in a video may not yield the best key-frames for representing the video. In addition, extracting key-frames from a video based on the arrangement of shots in the video may not provide flexibility in key-frame extraction. For example, extracting key-frames from a video based on the arrangement of shots in the video may not take into account the nature of an underlying platform of a video system or the limitations of communication in a video system.